


Two Flawed Characters (Who Speak Through The Aster)

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [11]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Cute, F/F, Fantasy, Flash Fic, Flowers, Fluff, Gossip, Insomnia, LGBTQ Female Character, Language of Flowers, Late Night Conversations, Medieval, Microfic, Mutual Pining, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Protectiveness, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22155733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: The guard thought further: It would be nice if the castle knew you were in love, Valériane...***Two sleepless women trade banter in a shrine...and discover their mutual feelings.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 15





	Two Flawed Characters (Who Speak Through The Aster)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in December 2019. It has been given minor edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️ 
> 
> **SUGGESTED RE-READING:** ["The Botanist's Most Important Failure"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21990349) and ["A Certain Necklace of Jade."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22059523) This takes place before both of those.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

It was three in the morning. When the chief guard entered the shrine, the botanist Valériane was there, too, facing the altar and lit by placid candlelight.

The guard expressed her surprise as she sat next to the botanist on the pew, although she was overjoyed out of her mind, too, and quite nervous. For now, she kept that to herself.

"Can't sleep," said the botanist.

"Forgot the extract?" 

"Oh, no, never. I never forget that I have to make more. But sometimes, despite knowing the deadline—I can't bring myself to do it. A flaw in my character. I'll get to it, I'm sure, after a week of insomnia. That, or H.R.M. the queen will knock me out with a mace." 

Valériane held a purple flower with thin petals; the sack next to her feet contained more. She picked the petals, dropped them into a tub beneath her, and threw the stem back into the sack. Then she grabbed another flower and began again. 

"Aster," said the chief guard.

"Very good, Marlesse de la Mer! I told you you're smarter than you know."

"Well—it looks like a star. That's just basic shapes."

Valériane observed the flower in her hand. 

"Every source gives it a different medicinal property," said the botanist. "I'll get to the bottom of it."

"Here in the shrine?"

"Just tonight. If I drop a few petals, everyone will know I left my tower this week and change their gossip for once. Wouldn't that be nice?" 

The chief guard Marlesse watched the botanist at her work. Affection bubbled up in her heart—and a child-like giddiness—and a certain memory...

"So you're here because?" said Valériane, suddenly, smiling. "I had figured this place would be deserted, this time of night." 

"Needed a quiet place to think, after all that with my mother. Thank you, my, ah, friend, for coming with me to speak to her."

 _And kissing me when it was over,_ thought Marlesse. _Or did I kiss you?_

"I will not have anyone think you're dull. Ever," said the botanist. 

The guard thought further: _It would be nice if the castle knew you were in love, Valériane. And gentle. And human. No more fearful tones, no more talk on this so-called gargoyle who takes meals in her tower..._

 _But,_ the guard Marlesse realized, _you have to admit it. Me, too._

"In courtly love, I'm told," said the botanist, "aster represents trust and affection, for those flawed characters who can't just say what they feel."

She handed one to Marlesse. 

"Now help me with picking these petals off, please," Valériane said. But her grin held mischief, and the guard's anxiety faded. She gave the flower back to the botanist, who laughed, long and hard.

Said the guard, "Yes?" 

"For the love of—what is it that you see in me?"

"I could ask the same thing of you, honestly."

Perhaps they kissed again—Marlesse couldn't remember, later on. Their courtship had lasted so many years that the memories blended like summer rainclouds.

The chief guard did, however, remember what Valériane said after:

"Really, though, Marlesse. Help me with these flowers before the early rituals start. I may vomit if I have to speak to anyone else this morning."

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos or whatever the heck if this tickled your fancy. There shall be more! ❤️
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** Our guard gets a name. It's not a real French name, or a real Althussian name, for that matter, but you'll find out about that in ["A Wolf Knows Much."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22372318)
> 
> Mar and Val be sneaking kisses all mutual-piningly for a long-ass time. Because of their schedules (I imagine they only have a day off per week, if that, not because of their superiors but because they're both trying to prove their own usefulness) it takes them a while to actually, like, get together. And then it takes a while for them to get married, for different reasons: see "A Certain Necklace of Jade." Dorky lesbians are my jam.
> 
> Fun fact: Val has something like a mailbox outside her tower door where people leave requests for herbs and/or their extracts, mostly so she doesn't have to talk to, or look at, or breathe the same air as, other people. Anyway, Mar leaves her little love notes in there, and does their whole lives, even after they've been married for decades.


End file.
